Monday, July 15, 2013

The Plight Of Black Americans & Economics

I'm back!

After sulking for a day, and reading all the emails that read something like, "You got some nerve quitting a blog I read...asshole! I got a fucking job. I can't just stop and comment on a forum. Get over yourself, stop being a brat and start blogging again!" I'm back.

I could never realistically abandon my own blog. I need a place to rant, rage and post my thoughts. This blog fills that need. Now on to my thoughts...

I am currently reading the book, Our Black Year: Our Family's Quest To Buy Black In America's Racially Divided Economy by Maggie Anderson. The book is about an upperclass black family, who vow to shop at black owned businesses for a year. The book chronicles the family's plight as they make this fascinating journey.

I remember watching an interview with the family on CNN a few years ago. I didn't know much about them, but I thought their idea was a good one. I also knew they would get more hate than love for taking such bold steps to empower themselves, the black community and the inner city. True enough, according to the book, they caught all types of hell.

Here is a break down of the issues outlined in the book...

Black businesses have some serious short-comings, which are tied to lack of money. For example, the author found it damn near impossible to find bagels and pullup pampers for her two toddlers at the black businesses she visited. Note: This is not a problem with businesses owned by non-blacks in the black community (i.e., Asian, Arabs, etc)

Black businesses (at least in Chicago) are located in the heart of the ghetto (though I think this is true regardless of the city). This makes sense from a population standpoint, but the author accurately points out, most well-to-do blacks are not going to go out of their way to patron businesses in dangerous areas.

Black folks seem to specialize in service occupations related to businesses like barbershops, beauty shops, funeral homes, but rarely do we own businesses that offer products like Apple, AT&T, Comcast etc.

White Americans, for all their hatred of black people (and people of color), do not want to see black people supporting each other or living independent of them (this is evident in the hate mail and comments this family received from whites).

Despite the growth of the black middle class, black businesses have decreased, and many of the past (i.e., insurance companies, magazines etc) have either failed or been bought up by whites.

I read this book with a heavy heart. I felt like crying while reading it. This book almost crushed my dreams of becoming a business owner. It opened my eyes to things I kind of knew, but wasn't too clear about prior to reading this book. It hurts like hell.

Anyone can look around and see the plight of Black Americans is directly tied to money and the lack of money.

We don't own shit!

Our money leaves our community quicker than any other race (another fact highlighted in the book). It is partly our fault....no doubt about it. We allowed businesses in our community to fail. We allowed "others" to come into our community and take our money while disrespecting us every step of the way.

The bitter reality is black business won't and typical don't survive without the support of black people.

Non-blacks don't typically support black businesses.

I find it funny that this black family received cries of racism from whites, who in all honesty, wouldn't be caught dead in the ghetto shopping at a black business. Whites exercise their own groupthink and racial unity, but feel some kind of way about black people (only black people...they don't complain about Asians and Hispanics supporting their community) having some racial unity.

Whites in this country support white owned business all day everyday. The same is true for Asians and Hispanics. So, why the hell is there such outrage when black people want to support black businesses? I'll tell you why...

This world doesn't want to see black people have shit! They fear any type of racial unity on the part of black people. Racial unity amongst black people will upset the system!

The billions of dollars that typically leave black hands, and make their way to non-black hands, will be centralized in the black community if black people ever exercised some racial unity economically. This would result in better schools, better communities, better families, better quality of life and most importantly of all...it will be FREEDOM from whites.

And they can't stand the thought of ^^^this happening.

Booker T. Washington had it right way back when....black people need to be like the Jews.

About Me

Life is not simple for a black woman who identifies as a lesbian. I come here to freely express myself. This blog is about my life and my take on the world around me. I'm funny, old-fashioned, selfish, stubborn, loving, caring, romantic and a real asshole at times.

Anything else you wanna know...ask!

Feel free to comment, but don't expect my opinion to match yours. If you wanna chat email me at lezintellect@gmail.com.

If you have a question click the "Ask Me Anything" button at the top of the blog and visit my formspring HERE. If you wanna hate turn around and walk away. I don't have time for haters.